As per Office of National Statistics, UK’s retail sales rose by 1.5 per cent in September from August and by 5.5 percent rise from February’s pre-pandemic level. However, apparel sales in August were still 12.7 percent lower than in February in volume terms, and sales at department stores were 0.9 percent lower. Online sales for textiles and apparel increased by 27.7 percent last month, but declined by 1.7 percent from the August

Research firm GfK says, consumer confidence in the U.K. fell by six points to - 31 in the first half of October, representing the lowest reading since May. The report gives economists pause regarding possible layoffs and the direction of any economic recovery if sales continue to decline in the months ahead.

Recently, Rishi Sunak, Chief Financial Minister, UK unveiled a multi-billion-pound jobs support plan for businesses impacted by local lockdowns and government assistance for self-employed and workers receiving wage benefits. However, the disclosure was made at a time when cities such as Coventry and Slough are being moved up to Tier II restrictions, with Nottingham expected to move to Tier III shortly.

The Welsh government earlier this week announced a ‘firebreak’ lockdown through November 9, shutting down all nonessential retail, leisure and hospitality businesses. During this lockdown, Welsh supermarkets can make accessible only certain portions of their stores that sell essential goods. Consumers can still purchase their apparel needs online. However, lost sales from physical stores will hit the retail sector hard and plunge it deeper into a state of devastation,

The Lycra Company will launch its newest denim innovation, Lycra® Anti-Slip Fiber at the Kingpins24-Amsterdam online event this month, reports Textile World. The virtual expo will explore a different theme impacting the global denim industry every day via live-streamed and on-demand panels, seminars and interviews.

Leaders from The Lycra Company will play key roles in the agenda. On October 28, Steve Stewart, Chief Innovation Officer Steve Stewart will discuss the company’s innovation process. More than 100 PhDs at the company’s four state-of-the-art R&D labs are dedicated to developing innovative fiber, fabric and garment solutions for the apparel industry.

Stewart will present LYCRA® Anti-Slip fiber, a new denim seam slippage solution for applications in single-core spandex fabrics that require durable stretch and good recovery power. This patent-pending fiber helps maintain garment appearance wash after wash and wear after wear.

Using LYCRA® Anti-Slip fiber in the core of LYCRA® dualFX® technology yarn further enhances anti-slippage performance. Combining LYCRA® Anti-Slip fiber and LYCRA® T400® fiber, meanwhile, delivers the high stretch of LYCRA® fiber with exceptional anti-slippage properties and the excellent recovery power of LYCRA® T400® fiber.

On October 29, Julien Born, Chief Commercial Officer, and Jean Hegedus, Sustainable Business Development Director, will discuss how The Lycra Company designs technology solutions for the circular economy.

Headquartered in Wilmington, Delaware, The Lycra Company is recognized worldwide for its innovative products, technical expertise, and unmatched marketing support. The company innovates and produces fiber and technology solutions for the apparel and personal care industries, as well as specialty chemicals used in the spandex and polyurethane value chains.

Multi-brand retail Chain Tablez India aims to achieve a turnover of around Rs 500 crore and expand its network to around 250 stores in India over the next five years, says an Economic Times report.

A subsidiary of the UAE-based conglomerate Lulu Group, Tablez India currently operates 67 stores. The retailer plans to invest around Rs 75 crore every year to expand its retail footprint in the country.

The company aims to boost its presence in digital and e-commerce space as well as physical stores by FY 2026. It will invest around Rs 70 to Rs 75 crore a year for this. Its investments in brands will be re-calibrated post-2021 as per strategy.

The company would fund its expansion through equities as it's a family-owned enterprise. It is also open to expand in other parts of the country. This year, it expects to achieve a turnover of Rs 100 crore.

Tablez India, which launched its operations five years ago in India, operates in retail and food and beverages segments.

Its portfolio consists of brands such as -- Toys "R" Us, Babies "R" Us, Build-A-Bear, GO Sport, and YOYOSO. In the F&B vertical, Tablez holds India franchise rights for Cold Stone Creamery and Galito's, in addition to its home-grown brand, Bloomsbury's.

Responding to an interim order passed by the Emergency Arbitrator in the arbitration proceedings invoked by Amazon under a shareholders’ agreement with the promoters of Future Group, Reliance Retail Ventures (RRVL) said it will complete the transaction in terms of the scheme and agreement with Future Group without any delay.

RRVL has entered into the transaction for acquisition of assets and business of Future Retail under proper legal advice and the rights and obligations are fully enforceable under Indian Law, the company.

It intends to enforce its rights and complete the transaction in terms of the scheme and agreement with Future Group without any delay. Recently, Amazon won an interim order against Future Group selling its retail business to Reliance Industries for Rs 24,713.

Amazon had agreed to purchase 49 per cent of one of Future’s unlisted firms last year with the right to buy into flagship Future Retail business after a period of three years to 10 years. The company dragged the Future Group to arbitration after the indebted company signed a pact to sell its retail, wholesale, logistics and warehousing units to Reliance Retail, which is owned by Mukesh Ambani.

The Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) has passed an interim order asking Future Group to hold its plans to sell its retail business to Reliance Group and wait for the final judgment on the plea filed by Amazon.

As per an Economic Times report, Amazon had filed an arbitration petition with SIAC claiming that Future Group breached the contract under which the US online giant took an indirect stake in its retail business in 2019. The proposed deal between Future Group and RIL does not have its approval and hence should not go through.

SIAC in its order also asked Amazon to submit a proposal within a week, outlining its plans for Future Retail in case the outcome is in its favor. The interim order is valid for 90 days and SIAC will issue its final verdict in this period.

Reliance Industries said it entered into the transaction for acquisition of assets and business of Future Retail under proper legal advice and the rights and obligations are fully enforceable under Indian Law.

Amazon indirectly owns a 5 per cent stake in Future Retail — which houses all food and grocery stores such as Big Bazaar and Easyday — through a 49 per cent shareholding in promoter holding firm Future Coupons that it bought for Rs 1,500 crore last year.

Linh Peters has been named as the new global chief marketing officer of PVH-owned brand Calvin Klein, effective from November 2, reports Fashion Network.

Peters will drive brand experience, product marketing and data-driven marketing innovation for the Calvin Klein brand globally. She will also oversee the brand’s consumer marketing operations.

Peters earlier served as the Vice President - Loyalty, Partnerships and Licensed Stores Product and Marketing, Starbucks where she managed the brand’s loyalty program and all its digital consumer engagement strategies and marketing. Prior to this, she was Starbucks’ vice president of brand and product marketing. Before joining Starbucks, Peters served as the head of loyalty marketing and strategy at Ulta Beauty and led marketing and strategy for Target Redcard.

Greg Stogdon, Calvin Klein’s current acting chief brand officer, and J.D. Ostrow, acting chief marketing officer, will continue to work with the brand in new ways as Calvin Klein has engaged their agency, Frosty Pop, as branding agency of record.

Stogdon and Ostrow will work with Peters to continue to build on the brand positioning and creative direction that they have established over the last year, the brand said. Metakeys: Calvin Klein, Linh Peters

Mazeix, recently added London-based brand Vaara to its brand portfolio and plans to further it by adding more brands in the coming months to reach a wider customer base in India. The online fashion retailer is betting big on the booming women’s activewear market and banking on international labels for growth in the Indian market. It offers global athleisure luxury brands like PE Nation, Michi, Koral, Ultracor, Splits59, and LNDR for women in India.

Mazeix was launched with the aim to bridge the gap between ready to wear and fitness apparel by providing people with International bestselling luxe activewear/athleisure brands, which are otherwise unavailable in the region. It is India’s first activewear/athleisure multi-brand e-commerce focusing on women.

Mazeix claims to have a strong delivery network and currently delivers products across the country.

Pakistani textile company, Moti Fabrics is leveraging multiple Mimaki Tiger industrial textile printing units to take its business to the next level. As a result of on the outstanding performance and process optimization delivered by the Mimaki digital printing equipment, the company has been able to adapt to changes in the textile industry and is now projected to reinforce its market position and expand its capabilities in high-quality textile production.

Faced with recent challenges in the global textile market, management at Moti Fabrics embarked on innovating the company’s business model, shifting from conventional to digital printing. In doing so, the company invested in Mimaki’s advanced industrial textile technology and installed three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII units

The Tiger-1800B MkII is Mimaki’s flagship industrial volume textile printer, available either in dye sublimation configuration for transfer printing or with reactive ink for direct-to-textile printing. Of the three Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII solutions operating at Moti Fabrics (Pvt) Ltd., two are equipped with reactive inks, enabling the company to directly print onto natural fibres such as cotton and linen, as well as onto manufactured cellulose fibres, including rayon and nylon. The third Mimaki Tiger-1800B MkII features sublimation inks serves the ever-growing printed polyester market, allowing the company to strategically diversify its product portfolio.

The Indian T&A sector is now going through its worst crisis in centuries. The nationwide lockdown led to a temporary closure of factories and lay-offs, mostly low wage workers. The pandemic has affected majority of India’s export market (the US and EU together account for approximately 60 per cent of total apparel exports from India in value terms, causing order cancellations/deferral resulting in inventory build-up and expectation of slower realization of export receivables leading to higher working capital requirements. Domestic consumption too is impacted.

According to the Confederation of Indian Industry, due to COVID-19, the slowdown in yarn exports has reached 50 per cent, severely impacting spinning mills. Textile units are unable able to repay annual interest to financial institutions. This, in turn, is affecting farmers’ revenue.

The cascading effect of external demand shock, along with slack in the domestic market, has resulted in lower production. A Business Standard report projected that textile units will see a spike in unit costs by around 25 per cent even if the lockdown is lifted immediately. The retail prices will see a jump because sanitization and social distancing will add to the costs of the products, which will eventually be transferred to the consumers. This will make the deficient demand a perennial phenomenon for the industry.

In a recent virtual meeting, textile ministers, senior bureaucrats and industry stalwarts, from India and Bangladesh unanimously agreed that both the countries should collectively target to achieve a 35 per cent share of global textile and apparel trade in the next 5 years.

As of now, India’s overall textile and apparel export is around $ 39 billion (FY19), and before the coronavirus pandemic, it is expected to reach $82 billion in 2021. While on the other hand, Bangladesh apparel export was $27.95 billion in FY20 compared to $34.13 billion in the previous fiscal year. Earlier, its target for 2020-21 was $ 50 billion, while looking at the current conditions, it has now changed and is set at $ 33.78 billion.

Together, both the countries have textile and apparel exports of $66.95 billion, and together they have to achieve at least $350 billion in the next 5 years. They have to grow collectively with the rate of 5.22 times.

Dr Rubana Huq, President, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), insists on collective efforts and urges to focus on ‘go regional, go green’. While Dr A. Sakthivel, Chairman, Apparel Export Promotion Council (AEPC), suggests having a joint expo of Indian and Bangladeshi companies where they can approach buyers together and get better value and more business collectively.